ABSTRACT
The chapter’s periodisation is part of setting the problem, as Orientalism is both a mode of reasoning and sets out two key points in time. Toledano subsequently completed his PhD in Princeton University under Bernard Lewis, a British-American Middle East historian of celebrity status. In the following years, Rabinovich and Shaked led the Dayan Centre and actively confronted and blocked Toledano, Gershoni and Erlich, as the hostility reached a peak. In addition to investing in bright students, Toledano and Gershoni sought and joined new global research directions, and better suited the growing tendency of borrowing from the social sciences, which were also helpful for raising funds and academic support. The workshop, organised by Gershoni and Toledano, invited prominent critical MES scholars and leading 'Saidians'. It is hard to exaggerate the influence that the peace process in the 1990s had on the field.
